Starting to Get It

We've tried for a long time now to get Clara to try all of the foods that we put on her plate. She doesn't have to eat it all, just take one bite. We've told her several times that if she eats one piece of _____, she can have a treat. It's seemed like a simple enough concept, but she just hasn't understood.

Well, it finally clicked last night. We told her if she ate one bean, she could have an M&M. Daddy even upped it to 2 M&Ms when he could see she was right on the edge, almost convinced. Quite a deal if you ask me. It was so funny to watch. She'd put the bean in her mouth, get a terrible look on her face, gag on it and out it would pop.

Then she'd ask for the M&M, but of course, that wasn't the deal. She had to eat it. We went round and round for half an hour probably. She would go across the room and throw herself down and cry for awhile and then get herself psyched up to come try it again. We would say "Do you want a candy?". She would stop crying momentarily and reply with "uh-huh" and come over to get it. Then we'd hold the bean out and say "You have to eat this first." To say she didn't like that game is an understatement.

Then we thought we'd try some good 'ol peer pressure to get her to eat it. The dogs got lots of beans and therefore lots of M&Ms. You think Clara's going to be discussing some of our parenting tactics while laying on a couch someday? Hope not. I'm sorry to say she went to bed without having eaten an M&M. I know you were hoping things had turned out differently. Oh wait, I take that back. At one point, she bit into the bean (probably on accident) and so Daddy caved and gave her one hoping she'd eat it all for the second one.

Today, the concept seems to be sinking in even further. She's still putting up a bit of a fight though. She wanted juice during lunch, so I told her she could have some if she finished the last bit of milk in her cup. She wasn't having that, but eventually did finish and lo and behold got what she was promised. And then she wanted a treat, so I told her if she finished her lunch, she could have one. She gobbled up the last of her lunch and got a treat. I'm loving this whole being able to communicate thing. And just as I've thought all along, it makes it SO MUCH easier to deal with her.

I definitely don't plan on doing this at every meal, but to teach that sweets are ok every once in awhile if you've eaten the stuff that's good for you seems to be a very good lesson to learn, I would think. Plus, it's the holiday season and there's so much of the sweet stuff laying around. You gotta splurge during the holidays. You just gotta.